MONTREAL — No musician sings the praises of jazz as enthusiastically as Joe Lovano, who once again this year was named best tenor saxophonist in the DownBeat critics’ poll. His speech is studded with “cats,” as in jazz cats, and “spirit,” as in spiritual energy. “Beautiful” and “thrill” also come into play.

Lovano, 61, a large, round man with a trademark goatee and fedora, savours the history of jazz and its players — whether legendary or unappreciated.

When I remarked that some people say today’s jazz seems in constant competition with its path-breaking past, he was quick to point out: “Yeah, some people do say that, but, you know, as a player you’re not competing with the past — you’re using it as a springboard and inspiration for your explorations. But you have to be a free player to do that.

“A lot of young cats are trying to tell someone else’s story, and in that way, they are competing, and that approach is dead — goes nowhere. To develop a sound and approach to playing of your own has always been at the forefront of creative music from the beginning. I mean, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis weren’t competing with Coleman Hawkins and Roy Eldridge and the cats they loved — they were inspired by them.

“Of course, at the beginning you’re learning from the players that preceded you, in the great handed-down tradition, but then you’ve got to put it together for yourself and stand on your own two feet.

“For me, I’ve been feeding off of Sonny Rollins my whole life. Who he is as a man and a player — everything about him: the way he is when you speak with him, his concern about the future, and how he’s lived through so many periods of life and emerged from them always telling beautiful stories with his horn. The richness of living in that library of sounds and spirits. It’s not competing, but learning from the wisdom of the elders. He’s a very spiritual cat. It’s been great to know him from his records and a little bit personally, too. I feel that we’re friends.”

Lovano relates playing at a recent birthday celebration for 84-year-old Ornette Coleman, regarded as the father of free jazz, with Rollins, 83, introducing Coleman — former rivals in a state of grace. “To be around the two of them together like that was really an amazing, beautiful moment for all of us who were there.“

When I asked him which legends before his time he would have loved to have played with, he jumped right in: “Playing in the middle of the amazing music of Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey in the mid-’50s. The feeling, the spirit, the creative flowing approach in that world. Also with Ornette with Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell (in the late ’50s and early ’60s). I’ve recently been playing some with Ornette, which was a thrill to go to his pad and rehearse and just be around him. He’s not playing like he was, but he’s glowing, you know. Because it’s the spiritual feeling and creative flow, to be able to come together as a congregation with players that inspired me to do the things I’m doing today. To be around the masters I listened to as a kid, there’s nothing like it.”

It’s the continuum of jazz history that Lovano imbibes. It’s all one, no matter what the style. He scoffs at the idea, proposed by some snobs, that avant-garde guru John Zorn doesn’t belong in the august company of Rollins and Coleman, and at the surprise that greeted Lovano when he recorded with Zorn’s Masada group. “I’ve heard Ornette in his music from the very beginning, because he’s a presence today who’s really trying to say something original, yet you hear the roots in it.”

He mentions that he’s been playing with Joey Baron, Zorn’s favourite drummer, since the mid-’70s at Berklee College of Music. Dave Douglas, Masada’s trumpeter, co-leads the band Sound Prints with Lovano. “He was going to NYU while I was on the faculty in the late ’80s and was coming over to my loft, right before he started to play with Zorn. We played a celebration of Wayne Shorter’s 80th birthday last year in Montreal. After that at Monterey we played two pieces that Wayne wrote just for us that will come out on Blue Note this fall.”

More connections? Dig this: the great drummer Paul Motian, who passed away three years ago, played in jazz’s most fabled piano trio with Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro, from 1958 to ’61. A couple of decades later, Motian hooked up with Lovano and guitarist Bill Frisell for another truly unique trio. Last week they played a celebration of Motian’s music.

Lovano’s current group, Us Five, is perhaps best known for giving exposure to bassist-singer Esperanza Spalding. “Now look at her — she became a superstar!” And she’ll be playing with Lovano’s old trumpet associate Tom Harrell Sunday at Théâtre Jean Duceppe of Place des Arts.

Us Five sparkles with two drummers, Otis Brown and Francisco Mela, who help Lovano “have a quintet that has four quartets within it, nine trios, 10 duos and unaccompanied voices as well.” Phew! “Real magical things happen when folks pay attention to each other and get into the flow of what’s happening.”

Joe Lovano performs with Us Five Saturday at 9:30 p.m. at Théâtre Jean Duceppe of Place des Arts, as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. Tickets cost $47 via montrealjazzfest.com.

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